Ninja_of_DooM

I had a problem with some bullies back in my school days. Or rather one plus all his friends tagging along to watch.Granted this was damn near 20 years ago, but hey-ho. It seems schools are still useless in varying degrees today. In my case I tried several times to get the school to sort things out. So after plenty of attempts I snapped one day, broke his nose, smashed his head into a wall and left him with a massive black eye and got to watch him run off crying his eyes out. He came back the next day and got another beating. The teachers ended up telling him he had it coming when we got hauled before them, mainly because they knew I'd already begged them to help. Now I'm not saying you should go straight to violence, as satisfying as payback is, but it's just an example. Everyone else above has given sound advice I happily concur with. Don't give them anything to work with. If they're looking to get a rise out of you just ignore them. Be the gray man. At the end of the day you'll leave school and these morons behind. There's one guy from my school days used to laugh a lot at other peoples expense. Now he cleans shop windows in a dump of a town for a living and looks miserable as anything. Now being a bus driver myself isn't exactly a glamorous job itself but I like to think I'm doing a lot better for myself than I thought I would be.

Europe's a country now? As for me, well why not? Let's get a mug of tea. I'm a bus driver here in Scotland. Not the sort who takes people on coach tours and such, but one who does town runs. I used to be a driver in the RAF, but they started hemorrhaging drivers once word got out that they planned to replace 90% of us with civilian contractors since they're not as expensive. I refuelled aircraft, drove buses, trucks, cars, vans, forklifts, ambulances, the lot. Now I get paid more to just drive buses around town. That said, we did just get offered a 0% pay rise after seeing all those who have been working from home this past year get a nice little bonus, so there's no telling how long I'll be there for now. :p Depending on what routes I'm working can make the day vary too. The biggest downsides to the job are probably the foreigners who come here to work but have no clue where they're actually going and can't speak or understand a word of english (I'm not exaggerating), and junkies. I had the same junkie get on three times yesterday claiming he had lost his phone despite holding two in his hand, had no money to get home and had even been left by another bus. At one point he couldn't even remember if he lived in one town or another. On one occasion I dropped him off, turned the bus around at the terminus and there he was waiting on the other side of the road with the same sob story as if I hadn't just seen him already. Then he passed out at the back of the bus and it took too long just to get him to wake up and get on his feet. Unfortunately, thanks to the SNP giving these people free methadone to either feed their addiction or sell to other junkies, people like him are going to be a nuisance for some years to come. I could go on, but life's too short. Otherwise it's a good job. On the odd occasion I'll get a compliment or even free stuff like a bottle of pop or a packet of biscuits from someone. The former is especially appreciated if ice cold on a hot day, just FYI. ;) Our buses don't have air con.

This:

I have the big box copies of the expansions if you like. ;) Sadly my copy of Quake, Duke Nukem 3D and even a boxed copy of Strife have vanished. Either they got thrown away or my mum has them in her attic. I really need to remember and ask her. But somehow the expansions stayed with me. As for me, I'd like my mortgage paid off. Please?

Ah yes! I see plenty of these at work. I work as a bus driver in a "city" (heh) half an hour away. There most of the actual homeless people are in one of the many homeless shelters, so you rarely ever see them living out. Most of the beggars here are so-called "professional" beggars. They do it for a living and nothing else. They're not homeless at all. Now this brings me onto another problem, that being junkies and alcoholics galore. The former being the most common. They smell, can barely string together a coherent sentence most times (one once tried to pay his fare with a half-eaten chocolate bar, I shit you not), and even deliberately leave needles stuck between the seats on our buses too. However I have to admit I don't feel the blame is all theirs. For one, thanks to our glorious leaders in the Scottish Nationalist-I mean Nazi Party, they get free bus travel at the taxpayer's expense, and also free methadone from their local pharmacy. Because what better way to help junkies recover than by subsidizing their habit, right? Then there's also the EU and their open borers policy flooding our country with unskilled labourers looking for free healthcare and housing. It used to be that people like me would work the berry farms on our holidays before they became large-scale industrial operations that required an army of workers year round. Add to the fact that the migrant workers are happy to be paid less, and what else would you expect to happen to a nation's unskilled workforce? I'd probably turn to drugs and welfare-leeching if I were in that situation too. You could say that they should simply get an education and find something better, but a nation will always need unskilled labour. And most of these buggers, who get paid in cash mind you, just send the money home to their families, so they're contributing next-to-nothing in taxes. I know this all sounds like a massive rant and I'm probably going to get a few knee-jerk "das racist!" replies, but it's far from it. It's more the idea of allowing uncontrolled movement of people that I'm against. 'Hate the game not the player', as it were. I'll be happy to see the EU end. Then maybe I'd vote for Scotland to become independent. Rant over. :p

Since it was a fellow Scot who started it off, I'll throw my hat into the ring, as it were. I'll embellish with a few photos too since the scenery has been brought up. I do share the sentiments of OP, Reese, in regards to the cities and politicians as well. I'm a country bumpkin at heart, much like my missus. More so for her. She owns two bloody horses! But I digress. The cities are full of some of the most peculiar people. Often the ones pushing stupid social agendas and such that people like me don't care about. I remember walking around Edinburgh city centre and seeing some vegan type weirdo walking about sporting a manbun and walking about in his bare feet. You know, where dogs shit and such. Walked right past a homeless man on the way who gave him a right funny look too. Even he had he sense to have shoes on. We certainly have a rich history too, though this segways me back to my disdain for those running our country. There's plenty we learn at school, though some things are conveniently left out. A prime example is the Glen Coe massacre. Ask anyone who knows and they'll likely tell you it was told to them outside of school. Some argue, perhaps truthfully - maybe we'll never know - that it isn't taught due to the instigators of the massacre being among those responsible for us being brought into the Union. Count Dankula on youtube did a good video about it. I'd suggest you go look if you're curious. Now it's not all doom and gloom from me. I noted one or two important cultural staples being left out. Namely black pudding and haggis. The former is oddly absent from all but the northernmost parts of England too. Black pudding is fecking awesome! Try it if you visit us. Haggis too, but those little buggers are slippery indeed. I frequently need to break out my haggis whistle to coax them out of hiding before I can even try to catch one. (The trick is to trip it up, since it has one leg shorter than the other.) The countryside is something else too. And I can see why people from England may be depressed down there when it's mostly just flat land horizon to horizon, with but a few exceptions, all criss-crossed with godawful motorways and cities everywhere you look. Ugh. When I was younger I spent a great deal of time out hiking and camping, and once spent two weeks out trekking across the highlands by myself for the most part. I think I first met someone else after 7 days, and that was just when I'd stopped in a bothy for a night. I carried everything I needed in my pack. Hard work, but it was worth it. I even had a hip bag to carry my camera in. I'll put some of my better photos from across the years in the post. I'm not one of these weekend casual hikers either, even these days. I'd say I prefer going out in the winter most of all. The heavier the snow, the better. I was once lucky enough to serve some time with a mountain rescue team which only made it even easier for me to get about outside with what they taught me. I have fond memories of tackling 3 munroes in blizzard conditions a couple of years ago in Glen Etive. Anyway, uploading all those photos made me lose my train of thought. I can certainly say I'm fortunate in my situation. We just bought ourselves a house in a lovely location that's away from the towns and cities an with little-to-no noise from the road that runs nearby. It's quiet enough that we've even started getting pheasants coming into the garden looking for food. Now my missus is hoping to coax some of the local squirrels in as well.

I just moved house a few weeks ago and found my olde Master System and Mega Drive in a box along with some games. So if I want a new console experience...I guess it's been at least 20 years since I last saw or touched them. Gotta make sure they're working first.

It's 10:40am here. I'm just having breakfast and enjoying my first full weekend in my new house with the missus. It's awesome.

There was also a place called Planet Doom, Doom Planet, or something. And now I've said that I remember I was on forums like that when I was still a teen. I'm now 33.

Club Techno-chocolate! (christ that's hard to type tipsy!)

Yeah I've heard that's been lost in some sort of abandoned mine or something. Odd place for storage.

I still haven't gotten an answer yet....

Do imps shave their nether regions? I don't think impse ever covered that and I believe it's an important part of the lore that needs answering.

This is purely aside from the fact that just about anything can be a world record now. It's just a load of bollocks.

Well yeah, you're kinda buggered if you're like that. Not that I'm much different. My drinking days stopped in my early twenties, like 23 or so. It got boring. I tried it again in the airforce, but it mostly ended up being a night in a club with expensive drinks, people shouting at each other over the loud, shitty music, and any topic of conversation being about work anyway. Yay.... That said, I do remember my 18th. We were at a pool bar in town, just me and a couple of my friends. They went to buy me a drink for the occasion and I remember each time I looked down at the bar, the lass was reaching for a different bottle and adding some to the glass. In the end it was blue, tasted like the worst cough medicine, and was warm to the touch. Apple sourz, absinthe, and at least 4 other things went into that thing. It did not stay in my stomach for long! These days I'm more partial to a good cold beer or a whiskey. Oh and a fact: I once had to abseil off a cliff retrieve a fallen climber while on mountain rescue who had fallen so far that when he reached the end of the rope he stopped so hard that he folded like a book, snapped his spine. It was so surreal at first I didn't realise how nasty it was until I got back to the top. His friend, who I picked up nearer the top on the way down, was luckier and just needed set up start to climbing back up again. Gravity's a bitch.

For some reason Pineapple's picture reminds me of the barracks I used to live in, albeit much nice looking. But a cramped corridor lined with doors sure brings back memories of a sort. :p @TwinBeast You're doing alright there. I'm a stickler for people not keeping their heels on the floor, so it's good to see. Now all you've got to do is clean it from floor to chest in one go. I dunno if you compete, but it really makes the difference when it comes to an overhead medley. Tell me, does your gym have any axle bars? You might find that a lot more preferable to a standard bar. It took me a while but I actually quite like suicide grip on an axle. Your back looked pretty straight to me, so don't worry about it. You'd probably be at home in the gym I go to. If nothing but because we know what we're doing and there are only 14 members. :D

Sheesh Phobus! Reminds me of the time I finished work at 1am and had to hand the key in for the bothy we have in town. I'm a bus driver. I got home, 15 minutes though so not so bad, only to realise i still had the bothy key, which would be needed for 5am so the first diver into town could open the bothy up. So 2am and I'm finally getting to bed. And now I'm tired just thinking about that. Oh the late finishes! As for my random fact, well...in preparation for moving to my new home next month I decided I better root around under the bed, since that's where a whole load of old junk tends to get shoved. I found some old figures of Snake and Meryl from MGS in the wee display case they came in, along with all the weapons and accessories. Poseable too. I wonder if it'd be worth much. I also found 7 boxes of various Magic the gathering cards that someone gave to me a while before I left the airforce. I've never counted, but there have to be hundreds of the damn things. I've no idea why he gave them to me, I don't play. Free stuff, I guess?

The Island of Doctor Moreau. I hear that one had a horrific production. Now the last airbender. Yeesh, that's a bad one. And yet, for some reason or other, it keeps showing up on tv over here in the UK. I've no idea why. I guess it's just one of many lessons in production value not guaranteeing a good film.

I loved the shit out of Q2. And that's coming from someone who had to make do with the playstation port. By comparison, the PC version was amazing. I mean they had to cut so much and water it down for the playstation. Somehow I managed to master freelooking, moving and firing like a pro without the use of analog sticks. The game wasn't compatible with those. They changed the ending too, which I guess was kind of cool. Kill Macron, plant a bomb, escape in an enemy fighter and go back to your ship in orbit, ending with a very relieved sounding "let's get the hell out of here." I loved the beefiness of the guns too, especially the super shotgun. And, unlike the PS version, you got the energy shield armour. I think that's because there was no inventory system in the port. I don't recall ever playing the expansions, though way wayyyyy back in high school I knew a guy who happened to have the Xaero expansion, so I played that a few times. Half Life was good, though it did drag a bit in places. It certainly moved at a slower pace than what I was used to, which I think is what put me off about it. I'm actually struggling to find anything to really say about the game. It was good, but...I dunno. I had the expansions for it too, but compared to Quake II, I've barely touched it. I don't really think it was worth all the praise or accolades it seemed to get in its day. I know which of the two I'd rather play if I had a choice.

Fox goes floof!

I still have them in the big old boxes! Holy shit!

I'm 33 here and in the same boat as Doom_Dude, or DD, in that I pulled the name out of thin air. Or maybe it was because I liked Doom and ninjas then. To be fair, I was a teenager then when I joined Newdoom myself. And Tenchu was an awesome game. I think the ages likely changed a little with the release of Doom 2016 bringing a wave of younger gamers along with it. The future is always gonna be scary. I mean my missus and I just bought our first house together. During the lockdown of all times, but that apparently helped more than anything. It's insane how complicated the process is here in the Scotland. I finally got to feel what actual stress is like for the first time ever.Drained the excitement out of the whole thing. (Just as an aside, when you do go for a mortgage, get a financial or mortgage advisor to help you find a deal. Don't just go to bank and ask for one.) It pays to have stuck in at school and had a career idea in mind, though as I learned when I joined the navy at 17, sometimes what you thought you wanted turns out to be the opposite. I dropped out of training and flip-flopped from one crappy job to another until I ended up in the airforce at 24/25. I can't quite remember. Best laid plans and all that. Now I know this sounds a bit doom and gloom, and I apologise. Your twenties are one of the best and worst times of your life. You're still young enough to enjoy your youth, which you should, but you'll learn to work it around getting a good job too. All the while you'll still make mistakes. At the end of the day, make sure to look after yourself first and foremost. Work hard and remember that things aren't going to just be handed to you. I think a lot of youngsters these days wind up having to learn the hard way that you need to make an effort if you want anything and likely have to curb their expectations and accept their lot in life. Once you understand what it is you want, what you're comfortable with, you'll be fine. But that'll generally come as you head towards your thirties and start to wise up. You'll be fine. Just don't end up like the benefit-leeching junkies I have to deal with on a usually-daily basis at work. ;)

According to my history it can be a matter of years. :p

I was surprised to see a SS4 on the way. It's another prequel set, from what I can tell, before SS3. Do we really need another prequel or should they just let the franchise be already? I'm not sure. https://store.steampowered.com/app/257420/Serious_Sam_4/ As for my take; it's been a long old time since I ever played the older titles. I do know I thoroughly enjoyed the hell out of Second Encounter though. As for 3, I always though the point of the design was to poke fun at modern AAA shooters with repetitive environments, unremarkable weapons and enemies, then gradually build towards the more outlandish stuff. I know most times I've replayed SS3, which in all fairness I've done quite a lot (the online co-op mode was pretty fun), I've always gone for the later levels.It wasn't always easy, but then i tended to play on Serious difficulty so I can't really complain after not playing for a while. Oh and for the sheer grind that it was, I did enjoy the last level of SS3.